Wednesday, June 27, 2012

Karen Klein, the bullied bus monitor whose ordeal sparked an outpouring of public support and ignited a nationwide conversation about bullying, finally met the man who is responsible for netting her more than $661,000 in donations

Sidorov, who said he was bullied once, too, felt compelled to act after seeing the YouTube video of Klein being verbally abused by four seventh-grade boys. He set up a page through Indiegogo.com asking for donations to send Klein on the “vacation of a lifetime.” Sidorov’s original goal was set at $5,000. In its first 24 hours, the fundraising campaign eclipsed $125,000.

Klein plans to donate part of the money to support Down syndrome research. She has eight grandchildren, one of whom has the genetic disorder.

Another portion of the nearly two-thirds of a million dollars will go toward home improvements, and to “pay off all my bills so that I can retire," Klein said.

"I almost feel like I don't deserve it," Klein, who has worked for the Greece, N.Y., school system for 23 years, added. "They should be sending their donations to other people that have more problems than I do."

Saturday, June 23, 2012

Jerry Sandusky was convicted on 45 of the 48 charges against for child molestation. All I can say is what happened tonight was an action that should have been taken 15 years ago. The Paterno family issued a statement saying that "the healing is just beginning..." but as far as I can see there can be no true healing until there is a cleansing of all parties involved and the culture of enabling on that campus is expunged. Sandusky was allowed to be free and continue his crimes because people were more concerned about protecting their turf and the sanctity of the Penn State football program than weeding out a pederast in their midst.

There are others that enabled Sandusky and those people should be brought to bear for their actions or inaction either through firings or more convictions. And with Joe Paterno gone and the football program's leadership in transition now is a good time to shrink Penn State football from the all consuming behemoth its become back down to the ordinary athletic program it should have always been. Those students didn't riot because they heard about a multiple child molester on their campus. They flipped cars and tore shit up because the football coach implicated in the crimes was fired. That's a sign that priorities are seriously out of wack on that campus.

Follow by Email

The Scribe

lyric that best describes me:
And I fell asleep and dreamed,
I dreamed I was in a Hollywood movie,
And that I was the star of the movie.
This really blew my mind, the fact that me,
an overfed, long-haired leaping gnome
should be the star of a Hollywood movie.